Pages

31 July 2013

My Wine of the Month for July is my last bottle of Delheim
Bush Vine Barrel Selection Pinotage 2007.

Just four 225 litre barrels (new French oak, aged for 13
months) were selected for this special bottling, so that’s no more than 1,200
bottles or 100 cases produced. I don’t know if this was available anywhere else
than the winery where it cost 120 Rand in 2009, about twice the cost of the
standard bottling.

I accounted for case of it myself when I was in the Cape in
2009 and also brought a few bottles home of which this was the last. We drank
most of them in Delheim’s glorious garden restaurant with friends.

“There weaver birds live in a huge oak tree on acres of land
coated by pine trees and fynbos vegetation. We sit on a porch overlooking lush
greenery with a view of distant Table Mountain. While drinking a glass of
Pinotage I eat ostrich meatballs with organic cabbage, then follow that with a
dessert of Pinotage ice cream – the color of blue berries.”

I remember how lush the wine was then, how exciting and
vibrant with rich plum and berry fruit flavours and a spiciness that made your
mouth water in anticipation of the next sip. This wine is now starting to show
signs of aging, with the upfront fruit receding uncovering more complexity, and
it’d be interesting to see how it would develop, but I’ve no regrets because
I have so loved drinking this wine.

24 July 2013

I was taken with Christiaan Steyn’s recipe for Ostrich
skewers with Pinotage Onion Marmalade and Sweetcorn soufflé, particularly his instruction
at the end of the second sentence

Start a coal fire.

Boil the kettle, pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, clean the
sweet corns, pour your first glass of Pinotage.

Christiaan blogs about food at TASTE BUDS and his recipe for Karoo Tapas is
an entry in a competition run by South African supermarket chain Pick’n’Pay.
They list a set of ingredients and challenge food bloggers to produce a meal from
them.

The current challenge is to use traditional South African ingredients: DrostdyHof Pinotage, Ostrich sausage, maize meal, Waterblommetijes (water lily flowers
– a local delicacy), Chutney and mixed dried fruit. One of the ingredients may
be omitted and contestants are allowed to add some, but part of the meal must
be cooked over coals.

Christiaan’s recipe is here and you are invited to vote for it
by pressing the green button.

The competition score board with links to all recipes entered
is here. As far as I can see, Christiaan is the only one who had the very good
sense to enjoy the Pinotage he didn't use in the recipe while cooking.

Image (c) Copyright Christiaan Steyn at TASTE BUDS and used with his permission.

18 July 2013

Kanonkop are launching a new varietal red Pinotage under
their Kadette label with the 2012 vintage due for release sometime in next two
or three months. The Kadette label, named in homage to Bordeaux’s Ch
Mouton-Rothschild ‘Mouton Cadet’ was originally a blend of wines that didn’t
make it into Kanonkop’s main labels.

As demand for Kadette grew output could only be increased by
using bought in grapes. The 2010 vintage saw a Kadette rosé made from Pinotage
join the lineup, and now, with the 2012 vintage a red Pinotage.

The red Kadette Pinotage is made and barrel matured for 14
months at Kanonkop and will cost between 5 and 10% more than the Kadette Red.

My thinking is that Kadette
is now the name for Kanonkop’s non-estate wines, i.e. those made from grapes not grown
on the estate.

However I can see myself ordering Kanonkop Pinotage from a restaurant
winelist and getting Kadette while being charged the Estate wine price, as has happened
recently with L’Avenir who also have three Pinotage labels.

About Me

Peter F May is the founder of The Pinotage Club, an international cyber-based fan club for wines made from the Pinotage variety.
Peter was awarded Honorary Membership of the producers Pinotage Association in 2004 and was a judge at the annual Pinotage Top 10 Competition in 2004 and 2005.
Peter is a wine writer, educator and author. His book PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine may ordered below and from Amazon.
Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape - odd wines from around the world was published in summer 2006.
Peter answers all polite emails - contact him at peter (at) pinotage (dot) org .

A I Perold's
A Treatise
on Viticulture
A I Perold (1880-1941) was South Africa's first Professor of Viticulture and Oenology. He dedicated himself to improving the quality of grapes for wine, brandy and the table. He studied wine and brandy production in Europe, imported more than 60 varieties to the Cape and bred new ones. Perold said this book “is intended to serve both the student and the practical grape-grower. There are in it technical passages that will appeal more to the student, e.g. the chapters dealing with the biology of the vine, its external and internal morphology, the theory of grafting. My remarks on the practice of viticulture, such as those dealing with the propagation, manuring and pruning of the vine, the production of table grapes for export, will, it is hoped, assist the practical grape-grower as well as the student.” This is a newly typeset reprint, not a photocopy. Text on the 712 pages have been aligned to match the original pagination so any external references to pages in the Treatise will be valid in this edition
Available in paperback and hardback editions. 712 pages